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Novartis offers new kidney transplant protocol

Beirut, February 20, 2014

Novartis, a world leader and innovator in developing treatments for nephrology and neurology diseases, has announced a new kidney transplantation protocol that aims to lengthen the life expectancy of a transplanted kidney.

The new protocol was demonstrated during the “Tiny Tim Nephrology” workshop organised by the Lebanese Society of Nephrology and Hypertension recently. It was headed by Professor Lionel Rostaing, consultant nephrologist, immunologist, head Department of Nephrology, Dialysis and Organ Transplantation at Toulouse University Hospital.

The new treatment is a paradigm shift towards better long-term outcomes instead of short-term benefits of the current protocols, Novartis said.

“The life expectancy of the transplanted kidney increases through immune system prevention, reduced drugs toxicity and absence of antiviral effect,” said Prof Lionel Rostaing. “It is very important to tell patients that their immunosuppressive regimen is not nephrotoxic, that is, it will have minimal side-effects, and that it will not be associated with chronic allograft nephropathy. Moreover, the immunosuppressive protocol decreases the viral infection and might also decrease the rate of post-transplant cancers”.

The new treatment has been enrolled in a global clinical trial (Transform) which is the largest trial in the kidney transplantation field worldwide on 2000 patients to further substantiate this concept.
The trial is the first kidney transplantation study to evaluate the short and long term patient outcome benefits using an innovative and novel endpoint that combines renal function and graft outcome, it said.

"Novartis has been a leading innovator in the transplant field for over 30 years, and this new treatment for kidney transplantation marks an important milestone for patients and their transplant physicians," said Mohammad Rammal, head of Levant countries at Novartis Pharma Services. "This new protocol will further highlight Novartis' continued commitment to developing innovative solutions that advance the care of transplant patients." – TradeArabia News Service